TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 4

Subsection 25

The case of Jonas Mathe

In 1993, on a farm called Lambertina at Clocolan, an ANC member Jonas Matli Mathe was shot and injured by police because he was calling himself ‘Mandela’.

The victim was taken to hospital but is today confined to a wheelchair, paralysed and mentally disturbed as a result of the incident. His parents said that they did not take any action against the police or the farmer for fear that they would be expelled from the farm [KZN/LMR/001/FS].

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT VIOLATIONS WERE PERPETRATED AGAINST INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE ANC BY THE SAP AND MEMBERS OF OPPOSING POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS WERE GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS FOR WHICH THE SAP IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

Police farms

201 References in several testimonies before the Commission point to the use of farms for the work of the police. It is possible that the farm ‘Bloemanda’ was used for interrogations in 1978. The farm ‘Roodewal’ outside Bloemfontein was allegedly used as a detention centre by the police. These allegations are, as yet, unsubstantiated. It is known, however, that the SADF had a military base at ‘Roodewal’ to which vigilantes, such as the Eagles, were sent for training courses in intelligence and counter-revolutionary strategies.